Robert Bridges

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Robert Bridges

Robert Bridges (born October 23, 1844 in Walmer , Kent , † April 21, 1930 in Boar's Hill , Oxford ) was an English poet.

Life

Robert Bridges came from a family who, as so-called Yeomen, had cultivated considerable land on the Isle of Thanet since the 16th century . He was the eighth child of John Thomas Bridges and Harriet Elizabeth Affleck and the fourth son of the family. The father died at the age of 47 when Robert was nine years old. The land was sold according to the will of the father. For Robert this meant financial independence, so that he did not have to pursue a job.

Bridges attended Eton College , where he stayed for nine years. NC Smith considers his visit to Eton College, an elite boys' boarding school, to be essential in the development of Bridges: there he developed the aesthetic sensitivity and mental energy that have characterized him throughout his life. Among other things, he was elected “Captain” of his house in the boarding school. However, his last year at school was also marked by religious doubts.

From 1863 Bridges attended the University of Oxford . It was there that his friendship began with Gerard Manley Hopkins , whose poems he published in 1916. Very early in his time at Oxford, he had decided to study medicine. However, it was not his goal to pursue this profession for a lifetime. A thirst for knowledge was the main drive that led him to start this course. From 1869 to 1882 he worked as a medical student and doctor in London hospitals. At the same time, he traveled to Egypt and Syria, extended stays in the Netherlands and France, and spent several months in Germany, where he learned the language. His most important station during his training as a doctor was the St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College , where he studied from 1871 to 1874 and then worked for several years. Among other things, he worked as an emergency doctor and noted in a critical report for the annals of the hospital in 1879 that he had seen 30,940 patients in his function in 1878 and had between one and 28 minutes per patient to treat them . In 1881 he gave up the medical profession after a serious illness. Convalescence dragged on for 18 months, during which he lived in Italy for a while. On his return he retired first to Yattendon , Berkshire, then to Boar's Hill.

Bridges married Mary Monica Waterhouse in 1884, the daughter of the neighboring architect Alfred Waterhouse . The marriage resulted in a son and two daughters. He spent the rest of his life in domestic seclusion. There he devoted himself to poetry , contemplation and the study of prosody . He owes his fame mainly to the poems published in Shorter Poems (1890, 1894). In New Verse (1925) he experimented with a meter based mainly on syllables. He also used this for his long philosophical poem The Testament of Beauty . Bridges was Poet Laureate from 1913 until his death.

Works

  • Shorter Poems (1890, 1894)
  • New Verse (1925)
  • The Testament of Beauty (1929)

literature

  • NC Smith: Bridges, Robert Seymour in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-860642-7 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ^ A b c Smith: Bridges, Robert in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . P. 41.
  2. ^ Smith: Bridges, Robert in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . P. 40.
  3. ^ A b c Smith: Bridges, Robert in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . P. 42.
  4. ^ Smith: Bridges, Robert in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . P. 43.
  5. ^ A b Smith: Bridges, Robert in John Sutherland (ed.): Literary Lives - Intimate Biographies of the Famous by the Famous . P. 44.
personal data
SURNAME Bridges, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bridges, Robert Seymour
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English poet
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Walmer , Kent
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1930
Place of death Boar's Hill , Oxford